The latest major sponsor to confirm its involvement with the Optimist sailing Worlds in New Zealand is Vodafone and the result promises to be a major leap forward for spectatorship of dinghy racing.

Tralee's Sophie Browne will compete for Ireland at the Christmas regatta down under.

The giant of the communications market will be making a significant investment in equipment and systems for the world championship youth sailing event, including Live Streaming of all races and mark roundings, which will be broadcast to spectators at the clubhouse and online.

"Vodafone's support will enable us to take dinghy yacht racing to a very sophisticated level for the absent viewer," says spokesperson Peter Dawson. "41 countries are now officially entered so this opens the door for great exposure for sponsors and to showcase New Zealand in terms of tourism."

The Big Red Vodafone Truck will also be onsite at Napier Sailing Club, as a place where locals and visitors can experiment with new technology, and purchase phones and top-up cards.

In addition to providing Mobile 3G capacity to facilitate the live streaming of race footage, Vodafone are also supplying 300 SIM Cards  and data plans to enable GPS tracking of every Optimist on the race course and at all marks.

"This is going to make a real showcase of youth yachting and a great display of our capability to hold international yachting regattas and make them visible to the World," says Peter Dawson.

Greg Campbell, Vodafone Chief Marketing Officer, adds, "We are delighted to support the teams on land and in the water with our powerful network coverage and reliable products.  We understand the importance on tracking the team's performance and how hungry fans are to get close to the action."

New Zealand has a history of proud success at this event: in 2007 Chris Steele won the event outright, and Alex Maloney was the top girl and third place overall, while New Zealand took the prize for top team.

Noppakao Poonpat from Thailand is the current reigning World Champion, and top girl claiming her victories in Langkawi earlier this year.

The Opti Worlds programme commences on 20 December with a four day sailing clinic, and an invitation regatta for all internationals and 100 of the top New Zealand Optimist sailors, runs on 28 and 29 December. There will be a welcoming ceremony and registration event, and Championship Races will run from 1 January - 9 January 2012.

For the many families who will be away from home for the holiday season, Christmas Day will be celebrated at Eskdale Reserve, a beautiful Riverpark in the Hawke's Bay.

As well as Vodafone, the 2011 Opti Worlds NZ is supported by New Zealand Major Events, Hawke's Bay Tourism, Tourism New Zealand, SPARC, The Radio Network,  EuroCity Cars, and the City of Napier. Website design has been provided by Catalyst, and other supporters include, the Victoria Cruising Club, and Air New Zealand.

www.optiworldsnz.com

Opti Worlds Vital Stats:

30 December 2011 - 9 January 2012

The Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/optiworldsnz2011

There has been a call for the Irish Sailing Association (ISA) to take a lead in the big decisions that face youth sailors on what classes to sail to after they leave the ranks of the Optimist, Topper and Feva classes. The call comes from a leading junior organiser who does not wish to be named.

Although youth sailing is buoyant in Ireland it is known there is a 'high attrition rate' among teenagers. The lack of transfer in to senior dinghy classes has been a cause of concern for many clubs around the country.

The comments follow a recently published  article on Afloat.ie promoting the RS 200 dinghy as a progression boat for juniors.

"We need a class that will keep youths engaged. The 420 and 29er are great boats but require higher levels of boathandling, are much more competitive and tend to attract the top sailors"

"While the ISA's Olympic ambitions are great to see, it will fail the sport as a whole if it does not tackle this gaping need, the organiser says.

Read the RS 200 article by Ciara Byrne and the junior organiser's comments here

Birmingham's Venables Wins but Cork's Crosbie Takes Third at Topper Worlds, Donnelly and Clapp clinch Optimist titles at Howth. Sharkbait took another bite out of the SB3s on Belfast Lough. Wicklow Lifeboat Tows a Racing Yacht to Safety After Rope Fouls Prop It was a Tough Year for Irish Yachts in the Fastnet Race but the Rambler 100 Incident Shows Strength of Ireland's Search and Rescue Service. On Dublin Bay, Lively Lady Wins DBSC Race on IRC and ECHO. Now that the Toppers have sailed away Dun Laoghaire is preparing for its next big event and the news is that British Olympic Gold Medallists will Contest the Star European Championships at the Royal St. George YC in a week's time.

Sign up for this mornung's e-bulletin (see past editions here) for all the weekend's Irish sailing news, pics and results straight to your inbox.

This morning's edition includes photos and pics from Sunday's Figaro departure from Dun Laoghaire and the Rick Tomlinson's pics of the start of the Fastnet race from Cowes. Derry-Londonderry is on her way to Rio in the Clipper race. Regrettably there was no Gold, Silver or Bronze from Weymouth but we're in a strong position. See our video with Annalise here. Plus: The Topper Worlds at the National YC, John Lavery's win at the Flying fifteen South coast champs in Dunmore East, the J24 Nationals from Lough Erne, A local pair whitewashed the RS Feva Nationals in Cork Harbour, some great shots from Bob Bateman. The Oppy Nationals start in Howth and Afloat's Sailor of the Month for July Martin Byrne retained the Dragon Nationals in Kinsale. There's also the full weekend results from Dublin Bay SC.

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Sign up for Monday's Afloat e-bulletin (see past editions here) for all this weekend's Irish sailing news, pics and results straight to your inbox.

Monday's edition includes photos and pics from Sunday's Figaro departure from Dun Laoghaire and the start of the Fastnet race from Cowes. Will it be Gold, Silver or Bronze from Weymouth? How will Peter, David and Annalise end up at the Pre-Olympics? Plus: The Topper Worlds at the National YC, Flying fifteen South coast champs in Dunmore East, the J24 Nationals from Lough Erne, Teens battle for the RS Feva Nationals in Cork Harbour,  the Cove People's Regatta, The Oppy Nationals at Howth and the Dragon Nationals from Kinsale. There's also the full results from Dublin Bay SC and Howth.

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Peter McCann ended his assault of the British Optimist National Champion at Pwllheli Sailing Club in 13th place. Other Irish team results inlcuded a 23rd for Cliodhna ni Shuilleabhain and a 16tth for Sean Donnelly. Full results here.

The 50th Volvo Gill Optimist National and Open Championship came to a close on Friday after a week of fantastic sailing in a mixture of racing conditions. The week started light with no wind for the 450 sailors but increased as the week progressed. Racing finished with sunshine but challenging conditions and 30-40 degree shifts.

After 12 races and talented, consistent sailing New Zealand’s Leonard Takahashi-Fry (13, Murrays Bay SC) takes the Volvo Gill Optimist Open Champion title “It’s really exciting to be Volvo Gill Optimist Open Champion. Sailing today was ok and pretty shifty but the weeks been great and as it went on I got better at sailing in the shifts. It’s been a bit cold, back home it’s hotter but it’s been pretty nice weather. I’ve really enjoyed sailing here and the event’s been well organized” said Leonard.

Arran Holman (14, Hollowell SC) is crowned Volvo Gill Optimist British National Champion “It’s been a really good week, enjoyable and very exciting. Today was really shifty and challenging out there but it was good and great conditions. It’s great to be the 50th National Champion and I’ve had a fantastic time” said 2010 Volvo Optimist End of Season Champion, Arran.

The trophy for the top British girl was awarded to Royal Lymington’s Mimi El- Khazindar (14) and Gill Race Team member Milo Gill Taylor (11, Spinnaker Sailing Club) secured the Junior fleet title. Close behind Milo was local sailor Huw Edwards (12, Port Dinorwic).

“It’s absolutely amazing! I’m so excited. Today was nerve racking but I won my first race. It’s my favourite sailing venue and I won the Regatta fleet here in 2008 so it’s great to win again” said GBR World Squad member Milo.

After 13 races the winner of the Regatta Racing fleet was 10 year old Matilda Nicholls (Royal Bermuda YC) who showcased talented sailing all week, followed by Sally Lorimer (Warsach SC).

Newly appointed IOCA (UK) Chairman, Simon Rogers paid tribute to a wonderful week of fun yet competitive racing “It’s been an incredible week with some absolutely fantastic sailing here at the 50th anniversary of the National Championships. We are delighted with the racing we have had all week and the conditions have been perfect ”.

Broken toe straps were no obstacle for Adam Hyland this week when the Glenageary junior took an unexpected dip in the Baltic. He finished tenth and top Irish boat at the German Optimist National championships.  The top result was from a field of 300. Full results HERE.

The 10 strong Irish optimist development team returned on Saturday night after a very successful trip to Kiel for the German Optimist Nationals. In particular Adam Hyland should be very happy with his 11th place in this world class fleet.

The quality of the fleet at the German nationals is much higher than at German oppie sailors have to qualify for the nationals and the top 20% of the German fleet (220 sailors) and with Foreign  participants making up the balance of 310.  Most of the foreign competitors teams were made up of World team sailors who are excluded from competing in the Europeans.

The Irish team spent 3 days training and acclimatizing to the local conditions with the German, Danish and other worlds teams.

The competitors competed in very mixed conditions ranging from very light to 20k plus.

The Irish Finished as follows:

11th Adam Hyland RstGYC
56th Sophie Brown TBSC/RCYC
75th Sean Waddilove SSC/HYC
77th Robert Dickson HYC
116th Fergus Flood HYC
129th Sean Gambier Ross KYC
139th Alacoque Daly TBSC
152nd Richard Hogan HYC
158th Ronan Cournane KYC/RCYC
204th Dara Cournane KYC/RCYC
239th Aoife Hopkins HYC

Dun Laoghaire's Adam Hyland finished strongly at the Optimist German National Championships yesterday finishing a 19 (his discard) (a bad start followed by a wrong decision on the first beat), 2 and 4. The results put him in strong position half way through the regatta with 6 races scheduled. He is counting  a 12th place finish which he managed to salvage when the toe straps in his chartered Winner Optimist broke while leading the last beat throwing him into the Baltic for a short swim and a scrabble back into his boat to finish.

Results HERE.

The forcast for today is very light and forecast to stay like this till tomorrow.

Next best is Sophie Brown winner of the Irish Trials and Ireland's sole Worlds team member sailing with the Danish team sail number is 65th, followed by Sean Waddilove in 75th.

There are 10 worlds teams competing at this regatta NED, GER, POL, BEL, POR, DEN, FIN, FRA, NOR, SWE and World team members from JPN, SWI etc.  These teams are the best Oppie sailors in Europe and their selection for the Worlds team exclude them from the Europeans. Therefore the quality of the fleet is much higher than the recent Europeans where only the second team compete.

Following on from the success of the IODAI European team in Portugal last month where Royal Cork's Peter McCann finished in 7th place and Tralee's Sophie Brown had an overall win in the Girls section of the French Nationals, Irish Optimist sailors continue to show promise at regattas this week.

At the British Nationals in Abersoch in the Seniors u 15 Sean Donnelly from the National Yacht Club in Dun Laoghaire has recovered from his Black Flag Disqualification in race 2 to 17th. Kinsale's 13year old Clíodhna Ni Shilleabhain having shown her potential in the light and shifty conditions on day 1 where she was lying in second after 2 races has suffered in yesterday's windier and more tidal conditions to fall to 23rd overnight.

In the Juniors Niamh Henry from the RstGYC is showing here experience by leading the Irish sailors in 13th position after seven solid races in the all in the top 10. With new guys Ewan McMahon of Howth Yacht Club and Colin O'Sullivan (Malahide) are showing that they are learning and earning.

in the Regatta Fleet Grace O'Beirne is leading the Irish Challenge in 12th place.

At the German Optimist Nationals, the results are slow to update online.

Fate seemed to have been conspiring against the Irish yesterday because Sean Wadillove from Skerries was won his second race yesterday only to be disqualified because of a technical infringement.

Light fickle winds on the first day of the Volvo Gill Optimist Open and British National Championships in Pwhelli prevented top Irish top challenger Peter McCann from Royal Cork making an early breakthrough but other Irish sailors have prevailed in the senior fleet incuding Kinsale's Cliodhna Ni Shuilleabhain in joint third overall and the National Yacht Club's Sean Donnelly in ninth. Results to date here.

Some of the nation's finest young sailors struggled in light fickle winds. The day was overcast and the light conditions brought tricky shifts. The southerly wind struggled to get over 4 ½ knots but the frustrated Senior and Junior fleet sailors managed one race each in the light breeze.

After one race New Zealand's Markus Somerville (15, Wakatere BC) currently sits at the top of the Senior fleet followed by British sailor and 2010 Junior National Champion, Freddie Grogono. In the Junior fleet the USA dominate two of the top three positions with JC Hermus (11, Bellport Bay YC) in first, Welsh sailor Alexander Watson (9, Llyn Brenig) in second place and Ryan Hennessey (12, Bellport Bay YC) in third. Matilda Nicholls (10, Royal Bermuda YC) sits top of the Regatta racing fleet.

"We were fortunate that when the breeze did fill in it coincided with slack water. It was shifty out there but no more than we predicted and there was consistent pressure. The wind faded towards the end of Senior fleet races so we made the decision to shorten the course. We are pleased to achieve one race for both the Senior and Junior fleets in such light wind. Pwhelli is a great venue to hold the National Championships without as much tidal influence as other venues in the UK." Peter Saxton, Principle Race Officer Optimist National Main fleet

2011 Volvo Gill Optimist Spring Champion, Max Clapp (14, Royal Southern YC) is looking forward to getting back out on the water tomorrow morning "It was quite light and shifty out there but I sail best in light winds. I've raced here [in Pwllheli] before and I'm used to it being windy so it's a change it's so light. I like the venue here, it's great to launch from the beach and compared to Weymouth and Portland it's more open to the sea. I really like sailing in the class because of the numbers and it's nice to meet new friends. My aim for the week - I'd really like to be top Brit in my fleet."

More than 450 British and international sailors from as far afield as New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and South Africa have descended on Pwllheli for the 50th Optimist Open and National Championships, which run until Friday 5th August.

Racing is scheduled to resume tomorrow (Tuesday 2nd August) at 11.00 am. The event will see a maximum of 12 races for the Senior and Junior fleets.